Netflix reportedly offered Xbox $500 million for seven years of exclusive film and TV rights to Xbox games, but the deal fell apart after Xbox countered at $800 million, according to a new report from Puck.
The report, from Puck’s Matthew Belloni in his What I’m Hearing newsletter on October 23, cites three sources familiar with the negotiations. The offer reportedly came from Bela Bajaria, then Netflix’s chief content officer, and would have given Netflix the exclusive right to turn Xbox franchises into films and TV shows for seven years.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and her business affairs team reportedly countered at $800 million, a $300 million gap Netflix would not close. Spread over seven years, Netflix’s bid works out to about $71 million a year, while Xbox’s counter implies about $114 million a year.
According to the report, Netflix CFO Spence Neumann was among the streamer’s executives who thought Xbox’s counter was too high. Then the talks lost their champion: Bajaria exited Netflix on October 15, announced alongside roughly 1,000 layoffs, and with her gone, the Netflix offer was taken off the table. Former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice is replacing her.
Neither company has confirmed the figures. Netflix declined to comment, and Xbox, in an unsigned statement to Puck, neither confirmed nor denied the numbers, saying interest in its franchises has never been higher and calling Netflix a valued partner.
The report does not name which franchises the proposed package would have covered, or whether it covered Xbox’s entire catalog. What is clear is the outcome: there is no exclusive Netflix deal. Puck reports that Xbox is now pursuing smaller deals with multiple partners instead of one overarching exclusivity agreement.
The collapse does not affect the projects already announced between the two companies. Xbox’s Minecraft and Diablo animated series are still coming to Netflix, and the failed talks say nothing about games on Xbox or PC. The episode is instead a measure of how valuable game adaptations have become, after Fallout became a hit for Prime Video and the Minecraft movie drew big box office numbers for Warner Bros.
All of the financial figures here come from unnamed sources via Puck and have not been verified by either company. We will update this story if Netflix or Xbox comments further.
Sources: Puck’s What I’m Hearing (October 23), as covered by Eurogamer, VGC, GamesBeat, Game Developer, and Inven Global.
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